Golf Autopsy.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 249, 21 October 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

Golf Autopsy.

Leaders in " The Open."— Where They Slipped and Recovered.

The atmosphere at a cliampionship meeting following the fight for the open title is generally supercharged with "ifs" and "might have beens," and many golfers can advance plausible and logical reasons of how their chances faded when a break- of fortune here and there might easily have entitled them to wear the crown. An analysis of the scores of some eight of the players who finished well up in this year's open at Titirangi, furnishes an interesting sidelight. I'or instance, E. S. Douglas failed in the two opening rounds to obtain simple fours at the initial hole, while the long twelfth hole cost him a total of 23 strokes. Oil the other hand', E. J. Moss had totals at these holes in keeping with the scratch score. His accuracy in iron play was particularly revealed in that only once did he fail to obtain the par figure at the four short holes, this being at the fourth hole in the last round, when ho caided a four. By comparison, however, Douglas played the outward half always the better, having had three totals of 30 and one—in the last round —of 33. Yet Moss showed to greater advantage on the more difficult homeward path, his totals against the scratch score of 3S having been 38, 39, 35 and 38. Douglas carded 43, 40, 3S, 3S. Another feature is that Moss always held the advantage of the field over the three finishing holes, at which for the four rounds of the open he averaged even fours. A glance at the figures will show that Douglas was six strokes worse for these holes. To shift our venue to the dreaded Wrecker a" dog-leg hole of 475 yards played across the Whau Creek, and made more difficult by the cross wind, A. ,T. Shaw, the dethroned champion, had the splendid aggregate of 18 strokes for tho four rounds. At one stage J. A. Clements had reached this hole —tOie

thirteenth—in even fours only to pile up an inglorious eleven, and yet his total of ,311 was only 11 strokes behind' the leaders. An interesting aspect also is that J. Weir, the youthful assistant to Moss, who finished only eight strokes behind the leaders, required no less than 25 strokes for his four rounds, his figures having been respectively 7, 7, 6, 5. N. Fuller, who also was well in the running, carded 0, 7, 5, 3, a mixture of mediocrity and brilliance. Peculiarly enough his three followed an eight at the difficult twelfth, the direction of the wind having ; shifted on that occasion. ' , Then' we had the feature of E. S. Douglas improving gradually but surely as the tournament wore on, his rounds having been 79, 7G, 74, 71. At the conclusion of the third round Douglas was heard to remark: "Well, there is only one thing for it —fireworks this afternoon." That he was as good as his word is exemplified in his outward run in the final round, which was as follows: 4, 4, 5, 2, 0, 4, 2, 4, 3—33. Shaw's total indicates that he lacked his usual brilliance, but it is significant of his abilities that despite this fact ho was but four strokes behind the winners. And yet we had the somewhat unique experience of hearing it expressed oil many sides that Shaw was playing badly. The truth is that liis failure to retain tho title was not so much a matter of the general quality of his golf as it was failure to take advantage of his innumerable opportunities. This is borne out by the fact that what could be called his worst holes were two fives at "Redan," bogey 3 in the first and final rounds and a six at the par four tenth, and at the sixteenth in the second round. One could put one's finger on this spot as the commencement of a chain of holes at which his golf developed to mediocre as ibis finish was 0. 5, 5, 4, for his one real leapse of 42 homeward. It was undoubtedly here that he lost the championship. Having thus broadly analysed it all, let us rivet attention on the comparative tables as set out below and in which the complete cards of some nine of the leaders are given: